


Safe Harbor

by asongstress1422



Series: Fire in the Stars [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Crying, F/M, Force Bond, Holding, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Supreme Leader - Freeform, Tender - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 13:22:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13167804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asongstress1422/pseuds/asongstress1422
Summary: Kylo hears her crying and can't turn away





	Safe Harbor

**Author's Note:**

> part two to "Rations". Don't need to read it but I would love it if you do ;)

The whisper of a sob catches his ear, breaking his concentration, and without thinking he turns to look for its source. _Rey?_

The area is dark and empty, the cavernous room eating up the light that emanates from the giant screen inlayed in his desk.

“Supreme Leader?” Kylo Ren’s head swivels the other direction to where Hux stands, a pinched cast to his weaselish face. “You must finish these reports, the deadline is tomorrow at 0700 hours."

Kylo glances down at the data sheets and documents displayed digitally. The ration budget for the next quarter cycle. Stormtroopers were not paid, believing their duty was to the First Order, but their housing and food had to come from somewhere. That and a thousand other things, the future of the whole galaxy, are now solely his responsibility.

He bends down once more to continue his work when the next sob echoes through him.

_She’s crying._

_No,_ he scolds himself, forcing himself to go back to reading the needs of TK station.

Yet the more he tries to push the bond away the more it latches onto his mind. The more he focuses on it and her, the clearer the sounds becomes. The rustle of blankets and the little gasps that tell him she’s trying to hold back tears. Her walls are up. She is forcefully trying to block him out and yet this much emotion still pours through to him.

He pinches the bridge of his nose, using his force of will to hold the connection at bay. They had gotten much better at controlling the confangled bond but still in times of heightened emotion it tends to become unpredictable.

She chokes out another sob and that's all he can take.

“We are done for tonight,” he swipes several document files from the table display onto a secured tablet, handing it over to Hux. “These ones are approved. Get them submitted accordingly.”

“Supreme Leader!”

Kylo ignores the censor in the man’s voice, sliding the remaining files on his own tablet. “I will look over the rest of these and have them ready to be submitted by day-reset,” he informs the general taking his long cloak from the back of his chair and folding it over his arm. He marches out of the room before the redhead could protests further and he’d have to be made an example of. For however many things Snoke got wrong, her was right that General Hux had his uses; well versed in the paper shuffling necessary to keep the First Order afloat. Kylo would hate having to find his replacement when his position began to chafe and he made a move to seize power.

But that was months off; years if he kept him happy with his little stormtrooper army. The important thing now was finding out what had upset Rey.

He enters his rooms, locking down and setting it so that he would not be disturbed. Laying his jacket on a side table and the tablet on the arm of the couch stalks through his suit. Remembering the sound of sheets he makes for his bedroom. The bond keys easier when they were both similar surroundings and with her still blocking he may have to make his own pathway.

Standing in his doorway he closes his eyes and taking several deep breaths as he builds her in his mind. Her sun kissed hair, her fierce eyes, the smoothness of her skin swimming with freckles, her sweet scent permeating the air smelling of home and head and comfort. The more he envisions the louder her crying became until it was coming from a distinct direction instead of echoing around in his mind.

His eyes blink open to her small quarters on whatever rebel base they had been holed up in for the last month. The area is barely big enough for the bed and a microscopic walkway leading to the door yet is still however, boast a personal closet size fresher.

She's curled in on herself so small it was as if she was trying to make herself disappear. A fist is jam in her mouth, her whole body shaking with the suppressed sobs. It was only as she comes to the end of her air that her body would shake and stutter drawing in oxygen in great ugly breaths. His heart pinched sharply.

“Rey?”

She jerks as if zapped. He feels her mind scrambling, reading out for him with the force trying to figure out how he was there. She had been so careful! Building the walls slowly with extra care so he wouldn’t realize she was blocking him so strongly and get concerned. So he wouldn’t see her weakness.

‘ _I’m fine,’_ she hiccups, trying to get herself under control, brushing clumsy hands over her face as if they could undo the damage of her crying. She keeps her back firmly to him. ‘ _I’m sorry if I bothered you but I’m f-fine now.’_

“Rey,” he eases closer, slowly, as he would a wounded animal.

Her shoulders hunker, feeling him get nearer. ‘ _I s-sai-aid, I’m-m fine.’_

“I know, honey,” he says soothingly easing himself beside her on the bed, reaching a hand out to her. “I know you’re fine.”

When his hand makes contact with her back she breaks all over again, her body tightening with too much tension as she holds herself silent in her grief.

“No, baby,” he says laying down behind her, wrapping an arms firmly around her waist. “Let it out. Let it all out.”

She latches onto his hold and just cries; deep wracking sobs that tear from her as she screams out her pain.

In their bond he sees it all:

_Two faceless figures walking away. A hard grasp on her arm as she tries to get to them, promising she’d be good and not eat too much, that she’d not to be in the way or loud anymore._

_Burning desert days and freezing nights. Nightmares that come out of the sand and try to eat her. Monsters that watch her with dark eyes._

_A wall with mark after mark dug into its surface. Praying to every known deity that each scratch will be the last. That someone will come and say that she deserves to be loved, deserves to be cared for and not constantly be hungry or in pain._

_That day never coming. Knowing deep down that its her fault. That her parents left her because she wasn’t good enough to be loved and that they were never coming back._

_But still wishing like the stupid little girl she is._

And through it all he holds her. He doesn’t say anything, they both know words are less than useless, he simply lays there and holds her. Gives her an anchor to grab hold of so she can find her way back when she’s ready. When the wounds aren’t quiet so deep and raw. When she can breath without the memory of sand choking her.

It takes a long time but eventually she quiets. Slowly she comes back to herself say to herself like a mantra,  _I am Rey._ _I am a Jedi._ _I am part of the Resistance._ _I have friends._  

Each sentence a building block to her as a person. So precious because she has found them or she made them herself.

He rocks her soft, like he remembers his mother doing for him when he had nightmares as a child; lending a soothing presence and a gentle touch. She's nearly half asleep already, exhausted from everything, so it doesn’t take much to ease into her mind and put her under. She goes easily, recognizing what he is doing and not fighting it.

Not even in sleep does she let go of his arm.

“You are Rey,” he whispers to her, his free hand carding through her hair, easing the tension he feels tingling in her scalp. “You will be one of the greatest Jedi masters of all time. You are the light that shines in the dark. You are important,” he brushes his lips against the nape of her neck, “you are loved.”

She sighs in her sleep and pulls him closer.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments make my day. Let me know what I can do better


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